Jpc Says New Trash Incinerator Won't Need Transfer Stations

The Joint Planning Commission of Lehigh-Northampton Counties reported yesterday that trash transfer stations in both counties are not worthwhile for the planned Bethlehem trash-to-energy incinerator.

But the JPC advised that two transfer stations may be worth building and operating in Lehigh County until the incinerator begins operating about 1990.

Transfer stations are points where garbage is transferred from garbage trucks to larger vehicles for delivery to a final trash disposal site. The idea is to save money by eliminating the need for many garbage trucks to drive long distances to a final disposal site.

The travel times to the planned incinerator from the most distant parts of each county are not great enough to justify building transfer stations for the incinerator, according to a study by the JPC.

But travel time to distant landfills west and north of the Lehigh Valley is long enough to possibly justify the operation of two transfer station in western Lehigh County until the incinerator is built, said the JPC study.

Once the incinerator is operating, trash from Lehigh County wouldpresumably stop going to distant landfills and start going to the incinerator, according to the JPC.

Because Northampton County has three operating landfills - the Chrin landfill near Easton, the Bethlehem city landfill and the Grand Central landfill at Pen Argyl - transfer stations in that county would not be economical, the study said.

The study recommendations were reported at yesterday's meeting of the Lehigh County Solid Waste Management Association, a group of 23 municipalities planning for their future trash disposal.

In other association business yesterday:

- Several municipalities interested in trash recycling agreed to meet with state officials to learn what information is needed to successfully apply for a state grant to build recycling facilities. The grants would pay 75 percent of the cost of the facilities and the local governments would pay the remainder.

Association officials said they want to have a recycling plan ready for the next round of grant applications expected sometime next spring. The association doesn't have information ready for the Nov. 29 application deadline for current grant money.

The association also hopes to get a state grant to pay most of the cost of preparing a recycling plan.

Association consultant Russell Cummings said a recycling plan would need detailed information to qualify for a grant to start recycling. That information would have to show that recycling of some trash can save money compared to landfilling or incinerating all trash, Cummings said.

Assuming a grant is secured next spring, recycling programs could possibly be started in some municipalities by about this time next year, said James Creedon, county director fo planning.

Emmaus, Slatington, Coplay, Alburtis, South Whitehall Township and Whitehall Township have said they would like to start recycling. Other municipalities are also welcome to join the recycling program, said association Chairman Ron DeIaco.

Municipalities serious about recycling don't have to wait for grants. They can start spending their own money on a recycling plan, Cummings said, with or without the hope that a state grant will eventually reimburse their planning costs.

- DeIaco urged those municipalities who haven't enacted ordinances giving themselves control over where their garbage is taken to do so soon.

According to officials, this power is necessary if the municipalities want to use the planned Bethlehem incinerator. The control ordinances should be adopted by the end of 1985 because that's when local governments probably will have to sign long-term agreements to send their garbage to the planned incinerator, officials say.

- A special committee representing the county association and the three- city authority that is planning the incinerator has been established to resolve questions about the involvement of the municipalities in the planned incinerator.

The questions deal with the controlling ordinances, the terms of the incinerator-user agreements and the possibility of collective municipal-user agreements.